SCHEDULES OF THE PAST: 1989-1990 Fridays

On Mondays, I take a look at schedules from yesteryear. Here's a look at Fridays in the 1989-90 season!

ABC	8:00	8:30	9:00	9:30	10:00
Sep	Full House	Family Matters	Perfect Strangers	Just the Ten of Us	20/20
Oct
Nov
Dec
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May

In the Fall of 1989, ABC gave its Friday night lineup of family sitcoms a new moniker that would become an iconic connection to shows that aired on ABC Friday nights throughout the 1990s. TGIF was the name and came with a jingle and hosting duties from stars of the ABC shows. While it never was as dominant in the ratings as Must See TV (this was still Friday night after all), it has had an enduring legacy thanks to how much it connected with 90s kids and families. The new lead-off was given to season three of Full House and it was the highest rated of the block. The new show in the block though was perhaps the one that is been most identified with TGIF to this day. Family Matters was a spinoff of Perfect Strangers (loosely) and fit like a glove in the lineup. Though the early episodes of Family Matters were much different than the Urkel days as Jaleel White did not even appear until midway through the first season. Perfect Strangers moved back an hour to 9pm. While its most to the night kick started ABC building a block of family friendly sitcoms, it was perhaps the least family-oriented of them since it was more of a buddy comedy. Just the Ten of Us followed at 9:30pm. The Growing Pains spinoff never really took off in the ratings and though it lasted in the 9:30pm slot all season, it was cancelled at the end after three seasons and 47 episodes. As usual, 20/20 closed the night at 10pm. ABC's first year of TGIF was a success with a stable lineup that was improving their fortunes on Friday nights.

CBS	8:00	8:30	9:00	9:30	10:00
Sep	Snoops		Dallas		Falcon Crest
Oct
Nov
Dec
Jan	Max Monroe: Loose Cannon
Feb	The Bradys
Mar
Apr	Various Programs		Bagdad Café	Sugar and Spice	Dallas
May	Small Talk	City

For most of the 1980s, CBS had a lot of stability of Friday nights with Dallas and Falcon Crest but as the decade came to a close, the primetime soaps were on their last legs and CBS was having to make some changes to the night. Both the soaps were still there with the 13th season of Dallas and the ninth season of Falcon Crest. By the end of the season, Falcon had been cancelled and Dallas moved to 10pm so CBS had some work to do. The 8pm hour was a revolving door all season. First up was Snoops, a dramedy starring real life couple Tim Reid and Daphne Maxwell Reid as criminologists. It didn't find an audience and was yanked from the lineup in December and burned off in the summer. The next entry came in January. Max Monroe: Loose Cannon. a Los Angeles-set police drama starring Shadoe Stevens as a cop who, as you might have guessed from the title, does things his own way. It lasted just four weeks before being replaced by a totally different show. The Bradys was one of the many successors to The Brady Bunch but this time was a drama. Featuring Robert Reed and Florence Henderson and most of the rest of the original cast, The Bradys took the beloved characters but gave them much more contemporary and adult problems (alcoholism! car accidents!). The show was conceived after 1988's TV movie A Very Brady Christmas had a lot of success. But this drama was not a success. The critically panned show fared poorly against ABC's family friendly lineup and lasted just six episodes. This was the last Brady incarnation to feature Robert Reed before his death in 1992. The next incarnation was the popular feature film satire The Brady Bunch Movie in 1995. While various programs occupied the 8pm slot after The Bradys, CBS moved Dallas to 10pm and tried a comedy block in the 9pm hour. Bagdad Cafe starred Whoopi Goldberg and Jean Stapleton as two women running a desert motel and restaurant. Despite middling ratings, it was renewed for a second season perhaps thanks in part to its two big stars. It was followed by Sugar and Spice, also a female-fronted show. This one starred Loretta Devine and Vickilyn Reynolds as two sisters with very different personalities. It did not get a second season. At the tail end of the season, CBS put in regular programming at 8pm again with Small Talk at 8pm, a comedy show that was basically Kids Say the Darndest Things. Monday transplant City followed at 8:30pm. With the failed 8pm hour all season and longtime Friday resident Falcon Crest gone, CBS had some work to do on Fridays.

NBC	8:00	9:00	10:00
Sep	Baywatch	Various Programs
Oct		Hardball	Mancuso, FBI
Nov
Dec		True Blue
Jan
Feb
Mar		Nasty Boys
Apr			Hardball
May	Mancuso, FBI

NBC had a pretty disastrous run on Friday nights in 1988-89 so they were starting from scratch to open up the 1989-90 season. They went with the gutsy choice of three new dramas. At 8pm was Baywatch. Of course we all know Baywatch as an iconic 1990s show but the David Hasselhoff-starring lifeguard drama lasted just one season on NBC. Where it found its success (and a whopping 10 more seasons!) was in syndication. While it became iconic for its running lifeguards, the first season did not have memorable stars like Yasmine Bleeth and Pamela Anderson and also took itself a little more seriously. After its NBC cancellation, Hasselhoff was instrumental in its renewal for syndication and that proved to be a windfall. At 9pm was Hardball, a buddy cop drama with a familiar plot: a grizzled veteran cop on the verge of retirement is paired with a much younger rookie cop. It was cancelled after one season and did not get a syndication reprieve. At 10pm was another crime drama. Mancuso, FBI starred Robert Loggia as a veteran FBI agent assigned to a new bureau. Just like the first two shows, Mancuso did not get renewed by NBC though Loggia did receive an Emmy nomination for his work. Mancuso moved to 8pm late in the season and Hardball to 10pm but Hardball also had two replacements in the 9pm hour. True Blue was set in New York City and focused on the NYPD Emergency Services Unit. It lasted just 12 episodes and was replaced by Nasty Boys, another police drama. This one was set in Las Vegas and featured Benjamin Bratt and a pre-NYPD Blue Dennis Franz. So while Baywatch had a long life in syndication, none of NBC's Friday night shows were back on the network for 1990-91 so it was back to square one again.

Top Rated Friday Show of 1989-90: Full House (#22)
Lowest Rated Friday Show of 1989-90: Snoops (#76)

What would I have watched on Fridays in 1989-90?
Perfect Strangers and maybe some of the other TGIF shows sometimes. I'm sure I would have watched or hate-watched The Bradys and would have sampled Bagdad Cafe.

Tomorrow: Top 10 Late Night Hosts!

Next Monday: A look at Saturdays in the 1989-90 season!